Police: Deserter jailed in E. Ore. killing, attack

Lukah Pobzeb Chang is put into the back of a patrol car by Pendleton Police officers after being arrested hiding at the convention center in Pendleton, Ore. The deserter from the Marine Corps is accused of the killing of an Eastern Oregon hotel employee in 2012 and the beating of a woman on a riverside trail earlier in August, authorities said Thursday.

AP Photo/East Oregonian, E.J. Harris

By JEFF BARNARD - Associated Press

Published: Friday, August 30, 2013 at 12:06 PM.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The slaying of a maid in a downtown Pendleton motel had stymied police for a year, until earlier this month, when surveillance cameras along a jogging path captured video of a man hiding a length of steel pipe behind his back, sneaking up on a woman who was brutally beaten.

Two officers recognized the attacker as a local homeless man who went by the name of Danny Wu. DNA from the pipe used in the attack on the jogging path matched a sample from the motel slaying, said Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts. But Wu's name, fingerprints and the DNA samples did not match any nationwide databases, and while Wu's picture was circulated around the region, and there had been sightings for weeks, they had all turned up empty.

Then on Wednesday night, workers at the local convention center spotted Wu eating leftovers in the kitchen, Roberts said. They called 911, and officers armed with assault rifles surrounded the vast building. A state trooper looking through a window spotted a leg hanging down from a ceiling in a stairwell. Confronted by officers and a police dog, the suspect came quietly, and under questioning, revealed he was a Marine Corps meteorologist, wanted for desertion after getting on a bus at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and never going back. He apparently enlisted right out of high school in Morganton, N.C., and ran out of money when he got to Pendleton, Ore.

Lukah Pobzeb Chang, 23, was arraigned Thursday on charges of murder in the Aug. 14, 2012, stabbing of Amyjane Brandhagen, 19, in a room she was cleaning at the Travelodge in Pendleton, and attempted murder in the Aug. 9, 2013, beating of Karen Lange, 53, along the jogging path, authorities said. Bail was set at $10 million. A preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 4.

Intermountain Public Defender was appointed to represent Chang, but had no comment because the firm has not met with him yet, said attorney Kent Fisher.

The attack on Lange and the revelation that it was linked to the Brandhagen slaying unnerved Pendleton, a high-desert town of 17,000 that is home to one of the nation's oldest rodeos, the Pendleton Roundup. The two women attended the same church, and the attacks were almost exactly a year apart, Roberts said.

"It's great to have him in custody because it gives a little peace in the community," Roberts said.

Roberts said without the surveillance cameras, paid for with a $150,000 federal stimulus grant, they would still be looking for their man.

"We have to use technology to augment our resources and services," said Roberts. "We have the same number of officers (23) that we had in 1968. We do have a very high volume of calls for a community of our size."

Chang had been cited for camping illegally along the jogging path, and jailed on criminal trespass charges after a repeat offense, so officers were familiar with him, and had his fingerprints from booking him into the county jail under the name Danny Wu, Roberts said. But in investigators have not uncovered any other criminal history.

A spokesman at Camp Pendleton, Lt. Ryan Finnegan, said Thursday that a person by Chang's name is listed as a deserter. Finnegan said he didn't immediately have other details about him.

And Chang did not fit the typical profile for homeless men around Pendleton. Despite harsh winters, he was better fed, cleaner, and better dressed. He seemed to have somewhere indoors to sleep, and did not appear to suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug problems, Roberts said.

But he was a loner, and regularly warned people to stay away from him, Roberts said.

After his arrest, Chang was polite, respectful, articulate and cooperative, Roberts said.

Police took swabs of his DNA that are being sent to a lab for comparison with the samples from the pipe and the motel room.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The slaying of a maid in a downtown Pendleton motel had stymied police for a year, until earlier this month, when surveillance cameras along a jogging path captured video of a man hiding a length of steel pipe behind his back, sneaking up on a woman who was brutally beaten.

Two officers recognized the attacker as a local homeless man who went by the name of Danny Wu. DNA from the pipe used in the attack on the jogging path matched a sample from the motel slaying, said Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts. But Wu's name, fingerprints and the DNA samples did not match any nationwide databases, and while Wu's picture was circulated around the region, and there had been sightings for weeks, they had all turned up empty.

Then on Wednesday night, workers at the local convention center spotted Wu eating leftovers in the kitchen, Roberts said. They called 911, and officers armed with assault rifles surrounded the vast building. A state trooper looking through a window spotted a leg hanging down from a ceiling in a stairwell. Confronted by officers and a police dog, the suspect came quietly, and under questioning, revealed he was a Marine Corps meteorologist, wanted for desertion after getting on a bus at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and never going back. He apparently enlisted right out of high school in Morganton, N.C., and ran out of money when he got to Pendleton, Ore.

Lukah Pobzeb Chang, 23, was arraigned Thursday on charges of murder in the Aug. 14, 2012, stabbing of Amyjane Brandhagen, 19, in a room she was cleaning at the Travelodge in Pendleton, and attempted murder in the Aug. 9, 2013, beating of Karen Lange, 53, along the jogging path, authorities said. Bail was set at $10 million. A preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 4.

Intermountain Public Defender was appointed to represent Chang, but had no comment because the firm has not met with him yet, said attorney Kent Fisher.

The attack on Lange and the revelation that it was linked to the Brandhagen slaying unnerved Pendleton, a high-desert town of 17,000 that is home to one of the nation's oldest rodeos, the Pendleton Roundup. The two women attended the same church, and the attacks were almost exactly a year apart, Roberts said.

"It's great to have him in custody because it gives a little peace in the community," Roberts said.

Roberts said without the surveillance cameras, paid for with a $150,000 federal stimulus grant, they would still be looking for their man.

"We have to use technology to augment our resources and services," said Roberts. "We have the same number of officers (23) that we had in 1968. We do have a very high volume of calls for a community of our size."

Chang had been cited for camping illegally along the jogging path, and jailed on criminal trespass charges after a repeat offense, so officers were familiar with him, and had his fingerprints from booking him into the county jail under the name Danny Wu, Roberts said. But in investigators have not uncovered any other criminal history.

A spokesman at Camp Pendleton, Lt. Ryan Finnegan, said Thursday that a person by Chang's name is listed as a deserter. Finnegan said he didn't immediately have other details about him.

And Chang did not fit the typical profile for homeless men around Pendleton. Despite harsh winters, he was better fed, cleaner, and better dressed. He seemed to have somewhere indoors to sleep, and did not appear to suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug problems, Roberts said.

But he was a loner, and regularly warned people to stay away from him, Roberts said.

After his arrest, Chang was polite, respectful, articulate and cooperative, Roberts said.

Police took swabs of his DNA that are being sent to a lab for comparison with the samples from the pipe and the motel room.